{"id":671909,"date":"2026-07-03T06:34:49","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T10:34:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=671909"},"modified":"2026-07-03T06:37:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T10:37:14","slug":"canada-vs-morocco-team-news-and-predicted-lineup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2026\/07\/03\/canada-vs-morocco-team-news-and-predicted-lineup\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada vs Morocco: Team News and Predicted Lineups"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s Canada vs Morocco in the round of 16 at the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Canada just won their first ever knockout stage game at the World Cup, but they enter the Round of 16 clash with Morocco as underdogs. We offer team news and predicted lineups for Saturday&#8217;s clash in Houston.<\/p>\n<p>Read More:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2026\/07\/03\/2026-world-cup-round-of-16-predictions-paraguay-vs-france\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">2026 World Cup Round of 16 Predictions Including Paraguay vs France<\/a><\/p>\n<h2>Canada vs Morocco<\/h2>\n<p>Date: Saturday, July 4th, 2026<br \/>\nVenue: NRG Stadium in Houston<br \/>\nKick Off: 13:00 local time in Houston<br \/>\nReferee: Michael Oliver<br \/>\nCurrent Odds: Canada 4.7 Draw (after 90 minutes) 3.55 Morocco 1.81<\/p>\n<h3>Canada Team News<\/h3>\n<p>Having finally won a knockout stage game, Canada enters this matchup as an underdog but will still have plenty of belief. Manager Jesse Marsch was at the stadium in Monterrey and saw the Atlas Lions defeat the Netherlands on penalties. &#8220;<em>It&#8217;s like, I don&#8217;t want to watch them play. They&#8217;re too good.<\/em>&#8221; Marsch <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aol.com\/articles\/facing-morocco-gory-horrible-nightmare-202908000.html?guccounter=1\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">said<\/a> of Morocco &#8220;<em>we know that everybody&#8217;s going to write us off, and in that is an opportunity&#8221;\u00a0<\/em>He continued. Marsch also spoke about how he would adjust and make nuanced tactical changes against Morocco.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Team Canada is preparing for Saturday\u2019s World Cup match\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/5xI2ZUDBxgQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>For the past four games, Canada&#8217;s biggest story has been <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/sports\/soccer\/canada-weigh-davies-start-marsch-eyes-fitness-edge-over-morocco-2026-07-01\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">fitness concerns<\/a> around Alphonso Davies, the Canadian star finally got minutes on the field against South Africa as an impact sub, setting up Stephen Eustaquio&#8217;s match winning goal. Marsch did not clarify whether Davies will start or be off the bench, but he will take part in the contest.<\/p>\n<p>Beyond Davies, Moise Bombito should be the starter at CB, and Tani Oluwaseyi should continue to start in the forward role ahead of Cyle Larin. In the midfield, it&#8217;s Ali Ahmed\/Liam Millar\/Jacob Shaffelburg who would make way for Davies but are likely to have some role off the bench. Niko Sigur is also expected to have a role off the bench as a utility player.<\/p>\n<p>Canada should be prepared for this game to last well into 120 minutes, and possibly penalties.<\/p>\n<h3>Morocco Team News<\/h3>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"max-width: 1280px\"><smartframe-embed class=\"smartframe_wp_element\" customer-id=\"b0c95bc04383cef69c6b47df872135cf\" image-id=\"WmOBFwgqYarV\" style=\"width: 100%; display: inline-flex; max-width: 6000px; aspect-ratio: 6000\/4000;\" ><\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n<p>When they met four years ago in Doha, it was Morocco that emerged 2-1 winners in what was a great World Cup for the Atlas Lions. Morocco needed penalties to defeat Netherlands side that played very <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2026\/06\/30\/ronald-koeman-coached-not-to-lose-the-netherlands-lost-to-morocco-anyway\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">defensive tactics<\/a> in their round of 32 clash. This side hasn&#8217;t always been the most elite team in this tournament, but they have shown clutch play.<\/p>\n<p>Morocco has a fully fit squad and can use their preferred XI for this matchup, with Chadi Riad, a CB, not remaining unfit after he was substituted against the Dutch. Morocco will opt for their experienced side with Brahim Diaz, Achraf Hakimi, and Canadian born Bono among the starters.<\/p>\n<p>Manager Mohamed Ouahbi made it clear that he doesn&#8217;t discount Canada&#8217;s talent at all. &#8220;<em>People think that it\u2019s going to be easy for us, it&#8217;s a walk in the park for Morocco, which is not the case&#8221;<\/em> he <a href=\"https:\/\/canadiansoccerdaily.com\/2026\/06\/30\/moroccos-mohamed-ouahbi-preparing-for-difficult-canada-test-in-world-cup-round-of-16-if-we-get-things-wrong-well-go-home\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">told <\/a>the media.<\/p>\n<p>Against Canada, Morocco will need to block their counterattacks, and will likely be the team in control of possession.<\/p>\n<p>Read More:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2026\/06\/28\/a-canadian-hero-stephen-eustaquio-delivers-historic-world-cup-victory-against-south-africa\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">A Canadian Hero: Stephen Eust\u00e1quio Delivers Historic World Cup Victory Against South Africa<\/a><\/p>\n<h3>Canada Predicted Lineup (4-4-2)<\/h3>\n<p>GK; Maxime Crepeau<\/p>\n<p>Defenders: Alistair Johnston, Moise Bombito, Derek Cornelius, Richie Laryea<\/p>\n<p>Midfield: Tajon Buchanan, Nathan Saliba, Stephen Eustaquio, Liam Millar<\/p>\n<p>Forwards: Jonathan David, Tani Oluwaseyi<\/p>\n<h3>Morocco Predicted Lineup (4-2-3-1)<\/h3>\n<p>GK: Bono<\/p>\n<p>Defenders: Achraf Hakimi, Issa Diop, Chadi Riad, Noussair Mazraoui<\/p>\n<p>Midfield: Ayyoub Bouaddi, Neil El Aynaoui, Brahim Diaz<\/p>\n<p>Forwards: Azzedine Ounahi, Bilal El Khannouss, Ismael Saibari<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo Credit: Smartframe Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s Canada vs Morocco in the round of 16 at the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Canada just won their first ever knockout stage game at the World Cup, but they enter the Round of 16 clash with Morocco as underdogs. We offer team news and predicted lineups for Saturday&#8217;s clash in Houston. Read More:\u00a02026 World [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1442,"featured_media":671914,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":true,"sfio_embed_code":"<smartframe-embed customer-id=\"b0c95bc04383cef69c6b47df872135cf\" image-id=\"WmOBIzXFe0K9\" style=\"width: 100%;max-width: 3525px;aspect-ratio: 3525\/2350\"><\/smartframe-embed><!-- https:\/\/smartframe.io\/embedding-support -->","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9541,2,161,1831,2132],"tags":[798,2909,3001,3086,2212,8585,4925,1814,9552],"class_list":["post-671909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-canmnt","category-featured","category-international-football","category-starting-line-up","category-world-cup","tag-2026-world-cup","tag-achraf-hakimi","tag-alphonso-davies","tag-brahim-diaz","tag-canada","tag-jesse-marsch","tag-jonathan-david","tag-morocco","tag-stephen-eustaquio"],"modified_by":"Steen Kirby","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1442"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=671909"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671909\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":671919,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671909\/revisions\/671919"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/671914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=671909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=671909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=671909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}